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Pittsburgh Penguins 2019 first-round pick Sam Poulin has been off to a strong start to the 2025-26 season with their American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. 

In 15 games so far this season with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Poulin has recorded seven goals, seven assists, 14 points, and a plus-7 rating. With numbers like these, there is no question that the 24-year-old forward is making a big impact with the AHL squad. 

Yet, what's more encouraging about Poulin's play is that he is only continuing to stay hot as the season progresses. Poulin is currently on a four-game point streak with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, where he has recorded four goals and two assists over that span. With this, the young forward is red-hot right now down in the AHL. 

Poulin will now be looking to continue to produce offensively with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. If he does, perhaps it could open the door for him to get another call-up to the Penguins' NHL roster in the near future. 

In 13 career NHL games over three seasons with Pittsburgh, Poulin has recorded two assists, four blocks, 18 hits, and a minus-3 rating. 

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One of the major storylines for the Detroit Red Wings as they began their centennial campaign in the NHL was the emergence of a trio of rookies who made the final roster thanks to their strong showings in both Training Camp and the pre-season.

Michael Brandsegg-Nygård, Emmitt Finnie, and Axel Sandin-Pellikka all began the season with the Red Wings for their rookie campaigns in the NHL. While Brandsegg-Nygård has since been returned to the American Hockey League, both Finnie and Sandin-Pellikka continue their tenures in Detroit. 

After a blazing hot start to his career with four goals and four assists, Finnie has hit the wall in terms of offense.

He hasn't registered a point since scoring as part of Detroit's historical 6-4 comeback victory over the St. Louis Blues on Oct. 25, and he's been since been moved down further in Detroit's lineup after having initially spent a few weeks playing on the club's top line. 

Bookmark The Hockey News Detroit Red Wings team site to stay connected to the latest news, game-day coverage, and player features. 

That's not to say that Finnie is concerned about his first career NHL scoring drought, however. 

"This is the best League in the world, and points aren't going to happen every night," Finnie explained. "Droughts are going to happen, and I'm just trying to stay positive and confident and just contribute in other ways."

"I'm just going to keep playing my game, trying to get to the net and the points will come." 

Finnie is known for playing with an edge to his game, which he plans on continuing to utilize while being a nuisance to opposition goaltenders and defensemen in close proximity to the net, the area of the ice he feels he's most effective. 

I like to play hard and get to the net, I feel like that's where I generate most of my chances," Finnie said. "Playing physical and around the net, that's when I feel like I'm at my best." 

Despite his scoring drought, the confidence that head coach Todd McLellan had and continues to have in Finnie has not wavered. 

"If we said that we’d have a seventh-round draft pick that hadn’t really played any pro hockey playing for us 19 games in and playing a prominent role, we would all be happy," McLellan said.

McLellan continued his praise of Finnie by noting the other things that he does that don't show up on the scoresheet. 

“He does so much extra work for a lot of guys,” he said. “He cleans up messes on the way back because he skates so well. He loosens up pucks on the forecheck, he’ll go to the net, he stirs things up a little bit, draws some penalties. There’s a lot of assets there."

"The confidence in him hasn’t gone or diminished at all." 

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Former Montreal Canadiens forward Christian Dvorak signed a one-year, $5.4 million contract with the Philadelphia Flyers this off-season. This officially marked the end of his four-year stint with the Canadiens.

So far, Dvorak has been a nice addition to the Flyers' roster early on, and he certainly made an impact in their most recent matchup against the St. Louis Blues.

Dvorak had a strong night offensively for the Flyers against St. Louis, as he scored two goals and recorded an assist in Philadelphia's 6-5 overtime win. This included him scoring a goal at the 7:53 mark of the third period to cut St. Louis' lead to 5-4. 

With this strong performance against the Blues, Dvorak has now recorded five goals, seven assists, 12 points, and a plus-5 rating in 17 games so far this season with the Flyers. With numbers like these, there is no question that the former Canadiens forward has had a solid start to his Flyers tenure. 

Dvorak has also been red-hot as of late, as he has posted six points in his last four games with the Flyers. 

In 232 games over four seasons with the Canadiens, Dvorak recorded 38 goals, 65 assists, and 103 points.

The Pittsburgh Penguins have announced that they have activated forward Rutger McGroarty and goaltender Joel Blomqvist from season-opening injured reserve.

In addition, both McGroarty and Blomqvist have been assigned to Pittsburgh's American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. 

McGroarty played in his first eight career NHL games this past season with Pittsburgh, where he recorded one goal, two assists, three points, 12 hits, and an even plus/minus rating. Down in the AHL with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton during the 2024-25 season, he posted 14 goals, 25 assists, 39 points, and 37 penalty minutes.

Blomqvist, on the other hand, had a 4-9-1 record, a 3.81 goals-against average, and a .885 save percentage in his first 15 career NHL games last season with Pittsburgh. He also had an 8-7-3 record, a .914 save percentage, and a 2.84 goals-against average in 18 games last season with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. 

With McGroarty and Blomqvist being two key prospects in the Penguins' system, it is certainly good news that they are ready to start their seasons. It will be interesting to see how much of an impact they can make with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton from here. 

ST. LOUIS – Consistency and desperation, desperation and consistency.

Two words often spoken but not gained enough on a regular basis when it comes to this year’s St. Louis Blues.

Such was the case again on Friday when the Blues scored five goals in a game but lost, 6-5 in a shootout to the Philadelphia Flyers. They’ll look to get right back on the horse on Saturday when the Blues (6-8-4) host the Vegas Golden Knights (7-4-5) to close out a four-game homestand at Enterprise Center (7 p.m.; FDSNMW, ESPN 101.1-FM).

Consistency of stringing consecutive wins together seems to be an issue, and it’s only happened once this season through 18 games (Games 2 and 3).

“Yes, very surprised,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. “I think it’s a mental attitude. I have to take ownership of making sure that they trust the habits and want to do it. And then there’s the mental component of attitude of game management goes into it, and that’s a habit too. It’s playing the game the right way. I think four of their five goals are directly the result of poor habits or puck management. And we gained our leads by good game habits and management, and players made plays.”

Montgomery mentioned desperation in his postgame press conference on Friday.

“The urgency we need has to come from within,” he said. “It has to be communicated more consistently by the coaching staff and the players have got to take ownership of owning moments.”

- - -

The Blues will implement three lineup changes for Saturday’s game.

Joel Hofer will start in goal after Jordan Binnington made 26 saves on Friday.

Nick Bjugstad and Tyler Tucker, each a healthy scratch Friday for the first time this season, will come in replacing Mathieu Joseph and Hunter Skinner, who made his NHL debut on Friday, respectively.

Joseph did not see the ice for the final 9:31 of the third period, which included a game-tying goal at 5-5 by Owen Tippett. Joseph’s last two shifts in the game were goals against, including an unfortunate fourth goal in which Matthew Kessel slipped and fell in the D-zone with the puck.

“Yes, he’s not the only one that could have done better in that instance (on the fifth goal),” Montgomery said. “He’s the first forward back; we’d like that play killed when Zegras cuts it back initially. And then he’s supposed to stay low, so he should have been in the middle of the ice. Instead, him and ‘Torpo’ had to make a switch. And then our defensemen didn’t scope out quick enough. We had two at the net and they had four high. And then the slot play, if Joseph’s going to be high, he’s got to shoulder check and make sure he has that play. That’s the exact breakdown of the goal as it happens in our structure.”

The lineup is fluid and the Blues held an optional morning skate today that included six forwards (including Jake Neighbours), four defensemen and two goalies.

They ended the game on Friday playing Brayden Schenn between Dylan Holloway and Jordan Kyrou and could go back to that line again Saturday.

“I thought they gave us a lot of juice,” Montgomery said. “They obviously had the one goal as a line, which gave us a lead 4-3, but I also thought they had one play where they had two chances, the one-timer by Kyrou from the Schenn pass and then we had the rebound off of it. They could have made it 6-3. Some of those things were good to see, and they didn’t spend a lot of time in the D-zone.”

- - -

Blues Projected Lineup:

Pavel Buchnevich-Robert Thomas-Jimmy Snuggerud

Dylan Holloway-Brayden Schenn-Jordan Kyrou

Pius Suter-Dalibor Dvorsky-Nick Bjugstad

Alexey Toropchenko-Oskar Sundqvist-Nathan Walker

Philip Broberg-Colton Parayko

Cam Fowler-Justin Faulk

Tyler Tucker-Matthew Kessel

Joel Hofer will start in goal; Jordan Binnington will be the backup.

Healthy scratches include Mathieu Joseph, Alexandre Texier and Hunter Skinner. Jake Neighbours (leg) is out.

- - -

Golden Knights Projected Lineup:

Ivan Barbashev-Jack Eichel-Braeden Bowman

Pavel Dorofeyev-Tomas Hertl-Mitch Marner

Brandon Saad-Brett Howden-Reilly Smith

Cole Reinhardt-Colton Sissons-Keegan Kolesar

Brayden McNabb-Shea Theodore

Noah Hanifin-Kaedan Korczak

Jeremy Lauzon-Zach Whitecloud

Akira Schmid will start in goal; Carl Lindbom will be the backup.

Healthy scratches include Alexander Holtz and Ben Hutton. Adin Hill (lower body), William Karlsson (lower body) and Mark Stone (upper body) are out.

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When a swarm of young hockey fans wearing Pittsburgh Penguins toques all have their phones out to take a picture with Sidney Crosby outside a hotel in Sweden, you know the NHL's doing a decent job growing the game outside of North America.

The first of two NHL Global Series games between the Penguins and Nashville Predators took place at Avicii Arena in Stockholm, Sweden, on Friday, with the second game commencing on Sunday. And the hype is palpable. Former NHL goalie Glenn Healy was among those who signed autographs for fans outside the hotel, and not only did spectators pour into the rink for the game, but they were also cheering the Predators on at practice on Saturday. (Thanks to Valtteri Karjula for sharing his Global Series experience in The Hockey News Community forum.)

Friday's 2-1 overtime win for Nashville featured some exciting action, with Swede Filip Forsberg tying the game late in front of nearly 13,000 fans.

This latest installment of the league’s Global Series comes at a time when the NHL is expanding its European footprint by opening up an office in Zurich, Switzerland. 

It will be a thrill for Swedish fans to see Penguins stars Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Swedes Erik Karlsson and Predators star Filip Forsberg live and in person, the truth is that there’s plenty of room for growth in the league’s blueprint to grow the game outside of North America.

As THN.com’s Avry Lewis-McDougall wrote about not all that long ago, the NHL could eventually combine its trips to Europe with outdoor games in places like London, England’s Wembley Stadium and Stockholm’s Strawberry Arena. The prospect of playing in front of 50,000 to 90,000 European fans at an outdoor game would no doubt be financial music to the NHL’s ears, and the visual grandeur of an open-air stadium hosting an NHL game or two is something the league and its sponsors would bend over backward to be part of.

That said, another option for the NHL to increase its footprint would be to host a week’s worth of games – say, four or five games in a seven-day span. To do so, you’d have to involve multiple teams. While the logistics of doing so would be tricky, the benefits of having a full week of games is something that absolutely should put additional games on the league’s radar. 

In any case, the NHL needs to examine all avenues to capitalize on fan interest overseas.

One day, it should make sense for the league to go beyond Sweden, Finland and Czechia for regular-season games. Back in 2008, more than 17,000 fans filled the O2 Arena in London for games between the Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks, and from 1997 to 2000, the NHL played games in Japan. With a rink being built in Milan, Italy, for the Olympics, it may make sense to go there for the Global Series, or perhaps play some more games in Asia.

But for now, placing deeper roots in places like the United Kingdom and Scandinavia is the most logical evolution for its entertainment product. So there may be additional baby steps for the NHL, but everything NHL-in-Europe is skewing positively, and that means more hockey-related revenue for players and the league to divvy up between themselves.

Imagining the NHL will one day have a full-time team outside North America is a pipe dream at the moment. But the fact that the league now has a permanent office is a testament to the growth of the sport. 

And while it will be exciting for Swedes to host some of the best players on the planet this weekend, there could be even better days soon to come for European hockey fans and players. 

For action-packed issues, access to the entire magazine archive and a free issue, subscribe to The Hockey News at THN.com/free. Get the latest news and trending stories by subscribing to our newsletter here. And share your thoughts by commenting below the article on THN.com or creating your own post in our community forum.

On Saturday night, the Chicago Blackhawks are going to take on the Toronto Maple Leafs at the United Center. This will be the final game of “The Originals”, the first of four chapters celebrating their centennial season. 

A ceremony will precede the game. The Blackhawks are encouraging fans to be in their seat at 5:30 to make sure they don’t miss a thing. Pat Foley is going to host the ceremony, which will celebrate the early days of the franchise. 

At 3:30 PM, the Atrium will open and include exhibits that show displays that include tributes to the original days of the Chicago Blackhawks. At 4:45 in the Atrium, Darren Pang will host a Q&A with Blackhawks alumni. 

Fans can enter the United Center at 4:30. The first 8000 fans will receive a Tony Esposito bobblehead. There will be no shortage of Blackhawks-related things to do ahead of this Original Six matchup. 

On the ice, the 8-5-4 Blackhawks will take on the 8-8-2 Maple Leafs in a battle of two franchises seemingly headed in opposite directions. 

Scouting Toronto

The Toronto Maple Leafs are off to their worst start in a decade. Since they built up the core that has made them contenders, they have never had only 8 wins in their first 18 games.

The Hockey News (@TheHockeyNews) on XWith Matthews out of the lineup with a lower-body injury and both of their goalies currently unavailable, the Leafs are only four points out of first place. @Michael_Traikos says there’s no need to panic - yet: https://t.co/At0TpLwtHv

Their captain and superstar, Auston Matthews, will be missing due to an injury. Both of their goalies, in addition to Matthews, have also been unavailable in recent games. 

Knies-Tavares-Nylander

Robertson-Domi-McMann

Joshua-Roy-Naccelli

Blais-Lorentz-Jarnkrok

Rielly-Carlo

Benoit-McCabe

Ekman Larsson- Mermis

Matthew Knies and Brandon Carlo missed practice on Friday for maintenance, but they are expected to play. These are the lines they fit in on during Thursday's game. Easton Cowan was recalled from the Toronto Marlies and could draw into the lineup as well. 

Joseph Woll has also been activated and should be the starting goalie against the Blackhawks. 

Projected Blackhawks Lines, Defense Pairs, and Starting Goalie

The Chicago Blackhawks have been dealing with injuries themselves, like every team. On Friday, Jason Dickinson, Frank Nazar, and Andre Burakovsky all returned to practice, but Tyler Bertuzzi was missing. Also, Nazar left early with some discomfort. 

Frank Nazar, Jason Dickinson, & Andre Burakovsky All Returned To Blackhawks PracticeAfter time away with various health issues, multiple Chicago Blackhawks players returned to practice on Friday.

Spencer Knight was in the starter's crease during the morning skate. Expect him to go against the Leafs on Saturday night. Knight has been one of the league's best goalies so far this season, so Toronto has no easy path to getting back on track. 

In front of him, the lineup is projected to look as follows:

Bertuzzi-Bedard-Burakovsky

Teravainen-Greene-Mikheyev

Moore-Donato-Dach

Slaggert-Foligno-Lafferty

Vlasic-Crevier

Kaiser-Levshunov

Grzelcyk-Murphy

During their last game against the New Jersey Devils, Sam Rinzel was moved to the 7th defenseman role, while Louis Crevier moved up to the top pair in his place with Alex Vlasic. For this game against the Maple Leafs, Rinzel is going to take a seat and watch. A reset like this worked for Artyom Levshunov, and they are hoping for similar results for Rinzel. Matt Grzelcyk will take Rinzel's spot on the second power play unit. 

Frank Nazar and Jason Dickinson both were at morning skate, but they skated as extras. Right now, Nazar is a game-time decision, and Dickinson will be out for another game. 

Bertuzzi and Burakovsky are both back on the top line with Connor Bedard. Ryan Greene, who did a wonderful job in tough matchup situations against the Devils, will continue in his role as second-line center if Nazar is still out. Ilya Mikheyev and Teuvo Teravainen help him round out the top six. 

For the first time since Chicago's home opener, after 14 straight games with 11/7, Jeff Blashill is going to dress the traditional 12 forwards and 6 defensemen. The forward scratched will be determined by Nazar's availability at the start of the game. If Nazar is good to go, one of Landon Slaggert or Sam Lafferty is the likely candidate, even though they both scored last game. 

Connor Bedard is looking to make it 10 straight games with a point, which would be a career high for him in terms of a point streak. 

How To Watch

Fans in the Chicagoland area can find the game on CHSN. As part of Hockey Night in Canada, this game can be found on Sportsnet north of the border. The puck will drop shortly after 6 PM CT. 

Visit The Hockey News Chicago Blackhawks team site to stay updated on the latest news, game-day coverage, player features, and more.

For action-packed issues, access to the entire magazine archive and a free issue, subscribe to The Hockey News at THN.com/free. Get the latest news and trending stories by subscribing to our newsletter here. And share your thoughts by commenting below the article on THN.com or creating your own post in our community forum.

The long, winding rebuild that has been going on in Anaheim since 2018 looks to be on the upswing. The team has taken steps to become a team worth watching again. They’ve become a team that isn’t an easy out anymore.

When the Anaheim Ducks started this rebuild, moving on from the core of Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry, they began to look for the future of the franchise. They were drafting high, making plenty of picks, and they thought they seemed to be on the right track.

The selections of Trevor Zegras and Jamie Drysdale in 2019 and 2020, respectively, looked to have them on the right track. Both players looked very promising in their first steps into the NHL. Zegras was the kind of player who was quite literally put on the cover of the NHL video game. There was excitement around the Ducks. The losing didn’t stop, though.

In 2021 and 2022, Mason McTavish, Pavel Mintyukov, and Olen Zellweger were added to the prospect pool and made their debuts. The losing still didn’t stop. The Ducks continued to be a team without structure and without purpose on most nights.

In 2023, Anaheim drafted Leo Carlsson second overall. They moved Drysdale in a trade that brought them Cutter Gauthier. They followed that up by drafting Beckett Sennecke in 2024 and then moving Zegras as the relationship between the team and player soured.

Fast forward to this season, McTavish is playing a pivotal role as a top-six center. Gauthier leads the team in goals. Zellweger and Mintyukov are playing pivotal roles on the backend. Lukas Dostal, drafted in 2018, has become one of the better starting netminders in the NHL. Jackson Lacombe, drafted in the second round in 2019, has emerged as a top-pair blueliner, and Sennecke has 12 points as a rookie in just 17 games.

The Ducks are leading their division by one point, and they’ve played fewer games than the teams chasing them. The team's success has been impressive. They are getting contributions up and down the lineup, but it’s their young players leading the way.

Every team needs a centerpiece or a franchise player. They need the player that they plan on building around. For the Ducks, that’s been Leo Carlsson. The Ducks’ young star is sitting near the top of the NHL’s scoring list alongside players like Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon. Coincidentally, going into Friday’s action, Carlsson was tied with Connor Bedard and Macklin Celebrini, the 2024 first overall pick, for third in NHL scoring.

The NHL's Top Scorers Prove Tanking And Rebuilding WorkJust how many top-end NHL draft picks are dominating the scoring race? The answer gives more proof to the benefits of going all in on a rebuild instead of retooling.

When Carlsson was drafted second overall, so much of the discussion was about the Chicago Blackhawks taking Bedard first overall. The buzz around Carlsson was that the Ducks weren’t taking Adam Fantilli, who wound up going to Columbus at third overall. Matvei Michkov was the talk of the draft because he was supremely talented, but fears of the ‘Russian factor’ were whispered about throughout the draft process.

Carlsson was the least fun and exciting option of the players at the top of that draft.

A little more than two years later, he’s the top line center on one of the league’s most talented young squads. The franchise player that they are set to build around for the next decade or more.

What has made Carlsson so special this season is that while he’s scoring the lights out, he has grown into an impactful two-way presence in the mold of Aleksander Barkov or Auston Matthews. His size, skating, and intelligence at both ends of the ice have made him one of the truest two-way forces in the NHL in the early season.

Carlsson has shown flashes in his first couple of seasons. His physical pace has now caught up to his intelligence on the defensive side of the puck. So often, he had the right intentions, but he was just a bit late to the board battle or the loose puck. This year, he’s on time, every time.

His speed and power have become more consistent this year. He’s growing into his frame, and the connections between how his mind operates and what his body is capable of have been evident. It’s allowed him to lean on opponents and take the puck when the game slows down and then burst away with speed.

Through the neutral zone, Carlsson is not only capable of carrying the puck, but he is more than happy to utilize teammates, working passing plays to evade pressure and navigate through traffic. His understanding of pressure has become a strength, absorbing as much as he can before deferring to teammates.

Leo Carlsson's Skating Transformed from Perceived Weakness to his Biggest StrengthDraft scouts pegged Carlsson's skating as a weakness, but the Ducks saw a future star. Now, his improved stride fuels his game-changing impact.

When he gets into the offensive zone, his physical and mental growth have made him one of the league's more lethal dual-threat power forwards. He plays through contact, draws in defenders and then can swing off pressure before hitting a teammate in open ice or use the defender as a screen and fire a pinpoint shot through their feet. Carlsson’s heavy shot has become a legitimate weapon for the Ducks, and opposing teams can’t key in on it because of his vision and passing.

When you start to look at some of the advanced numbers and the underlying stats, Carlsson’s arrival seems even more evident. He’s one of two players in the top 15 of league scoring who have less than 17 percent offensive zone starts, at 16.7 percent, according to moneypuck.com. He also leads that same group in defensive zone starts at 16.9 percent. Only two other players in the league's top 15 scorers are above 14 percent.

Carlsson is currently rocking a 61 percent Corsi and a 59 percent Fenwick, well above average in shot share. His on-ice expected goals percentage is 56 percent. His on-ice shot attempts per 60 minutes are 78.87, an insane rate. Whichever advanced metric you follow, Carlsson looks fantastic. This isn’t just smoke and mirrors. Carlsson’s arrival is legitimate.

Simply put, Carlsson has become borderline dominant on most nights. He’s ascending to the level of a true number one center with elite upside. At just 20 years old, Carlsson has become the franchise piece that the Ducks have hoped for.

Now it’s time for Carlsson and the Ducks to prove that this isn’t just a hot start.

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